Christians are facing a new age of "martyrdom" across much of the world, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Speaking in Istanbul, Turkey, the Most Rev Justin Welby singled out the persecution of believers across the Middle East and said Christians are still "called" to suffer and even die for the faith in the 21st Century.

But he insisted that religion is often just a "pretext" for violence and not the real cause.

He made his remarks at the end of a two-day visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholemew I, the most senior cleric in the eastern Orthodox church.